


A long way to go

by Aqua111



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic)
Genre: Brotherhood, Gen, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 12:56:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19229575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aqua111/pseuds/Aqua111
Summary: A one-shot "What if..." type of story about how Sabre would react if he had the were-curse as well.





	A long way to go

Stumbling through the corridors of Haven Sabre pressed his hands against his mouth to keep himself from either vomiting or sobbing out loud, depending on what he was able to hold in longer - his tears or his stomach contents. A thin trail of blood droplets here and there followed his path, sometimes were also smeared at a wall or door whenever he bumped against them. For the most part it had already dried up though, turning his fur into sticky clumps. He so dearly wanted to believe it was just his, that somewhere he had wounds large enough to cause so much bleeding. But the carcasses he had woken up next to had eradicated any doubts and with that also any hopes he might have had.  
By now he could hear voices behind him calling out to him, but he neither cared nor stopped. All he wanted was to get to his room, to just get away from everything.

Leaning against the door he just slammed shut Sabre slowly slid to the floor, wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his head on them. His body now shook with sobs.  
Why had this happened to him? He already had noticed the signs many days in advance but he had lived in denial, made himself believe he was getting a bad cold, just coming down with a high fever. There was no such thing as a curse anymore - it had already skipped too many generations and he had long passed the age during which the first transformation usually occurred.   
And yet it had happened. He barely had enough time to use an emergency escape out of Haven before he completely blacked out. No, he didn't lose consciousness because of the pain - tough that would have been preferable. It rather was as if something had completely pushed him out of his mind and body and taken control instead. Blurry snippets of memories slowly trickled back into his mind.

Pain, incredible pain. Writhing on the floor, wishing he could die. Fear. Fuelling his anger. Blinding wrath. No more pain, no more fear. Just the adrenaline rush while running, destroying, hunting. Smelling the fear of others, hearing their racing heartbeat. Tasting their blood.

Sabre couldn't hold it down any longer. He rolled over, propped up on his arms and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor.

Even when the last few dry heaves were over he wanted to remain in this position, just in case, but his arms were shivering so badly that he had to sit back up on his heels. He wrapped his arms around his body, tried to breathe in slowly and deeply to calm himself down. It only ended in a couple more sobs.

Behind his door he could hear voices becoming louder, frantical knocks. If he had heard correctly someone had called for Spectre as well.  
Why couldn't they leave him alone? He just wanted to stay locked up in this room forever - maybe even until he died of thirst or hunger, he just didn't care. A monster like him didn't deserve anything better.

Something hit his door with a crash. Sabre spun around with a start and fell back. Another crash, this time breaking loose a couple of splinters.  
"Just leave me alone!" he cried out and crawled back a few feet. A sudden pain shut through his limbs. His mind started spinning. From what he had heard stress and adrenaline rushes could lead to sudden transformations during the days before and after a full moon. But please, for Aurora's sake, not here and now, not in Haven.

The door slammed open and Spectre stumbled into the room. He was breathing hard and there was a strange glow in his eyes. His bared teeth looked sharper, more like fangs, and his fingers definitely ended in claws - either he hadn't changed back properly yet or was about to transform a second time.  
"What the fuck is going on here?" he snarled.

"Just stay away from me! I'm a menace for everyone! Even..." Sabre cried out again and doubled over in pain.

Spectre quickly let his gaze wander over Sabre and smelled the air.  
"Well, shit..." he mumbled. "Everyone, get away from here. Looks like the curse isn't as dead as we wished to believe. But this isn't the first nutcase I'd help to tame."

Through a veil of tears Sabre could see how the older Guardian got down on his knees and propped up on his arms, how his body was raising and falling as if he was breathing fast and deep. He was hyperventilating, but definitely not out of panic or fear.  
Then the next wave of incredible pain shot through his body and blinded him. He could feel his bones stretching, his muscles ripping and regrowing stronger.  
And with the pain the rage returned as well. He could clearly sense the other presence now. Not prey, he smelled no fear, but it definitely was a rival. The prey was outside though, not too far away. He only had to get past his rival on the ground. He stood up, sprinted forward and jumped.

Spectre crashed against his body mid-air. The two were-Echidnas rolled over the ground, their claws digging into each other's body. The dark Guardian was definitely outmatched when it came to sheer size but that was quickly made up for by ferocity, agility and moreover decades of practice. All Sabre had done so far was shredding a couple of woodland critters to pieces. He didn't have to stand up against one of his own kind yet.

The younger male snapped his jaw shut, deeply dug his teeth into the other's shoulder. He tasted blood, but the wrong kind of blood - foul and bitter - nothing to quench his hunger at all but hopefully he could at least incapacitate his opponent. Two clawed hands suddenly slashed over his chest a couple of times, ripped his skin open. He staggered for a short time then launched into another attack but Spectre quickly spun out of the way and jumped his back. Sabre howled out in anger and stumbled back. He slammed against the wall a couple of times, trying to crush his opponent between his body and the concrete. It seemed to work, Spectre's grip loosened and he dropped to the floor. Within a heartbeat Sabre was on top of him and pinned him to the ground.  
Immediately the dark Echidna made his body as flat as possible and started to relax his muscles. A clear sign that he wanted to give up. For a few rapid heartbeats Sabre stared at him but then he brought his jaw down to Spectre's neck.

It was something Spectre would have called his special trick. Risky, but trained for a really long time. As soon as his opponent didn't expect resistance anymore he tensed up his muscles again and slammed his arms and legs up with all his strength. Caught completely off guard Sabre flew off, the air was pressed out of his lungs. He tried to recover from the pain in his chest and stomach but before he had the chance Spectre dragged him up, slammed him against the wall a few times and as soon as he dropped back to the ground the older male dug his claws into his skin once again. Sabre could feel hot breath in his face and heard a guttural growl that sounded like a warning. Now it was his time to become limb. He just had no strength left anymore.

With the rush of adrenaline gone his anger subsided as well. And with that the veil over his eyes finally lifted and he gradually regained his senses and control over his own body. Slowly he started to notice the chaos around him, the freshly opened wounds on his own body. And then he felt something dripping on him. His eyes widened in horror when he realised Sepctre was standing over him - still bleeding. He quickly turned away when shame and pain rushed over him and he felt the tears welling up again.

"So you are back", Spectre said but only relaxed his position a little. Better safe than sorry.  
"Why didn't ... why didn't you kill me?" Sabre stuttered. "Why couldn't you just end it right here and now? I will be a threat to everyone."  
"Because no one killed me either", Spectre calmly stated. "And I was way worse when I was your age. You won't believe how often I had Steppenwolf's teeth against my throat. And still here I am, alive and ... yeah, 'well' is probably not the best term at the current moment but I am still alive. And I wasn't even angry at you for attacking me. Else you already would have been blasted with Chaos energy a couple of time and this battle would have been much shorter."  
"But how... how will I ever learn? I don't have myself under control even the slightest bit."  
"You don't?" Spectre now finally decided it was okay to withdraw and started tending to his wounds. "If you didn't we wouldn't be sitting right here talking to each other, now would we? It might take a long time and it might be hard but eventually you will learn."  
Sabre still kept his face turned away but at least there were no more new tears which Spectre saw as a good sign. "You neither are the first nor the only one to go through this. Just like I always had someone by my side who believed in me and got me through this you will as well. And don't worry about what the others might say or think - even those who don't have the curse know what you're going through and how to handle it. Heck, if they could handle ME for such a long time nothing is probably going to faze them anymore." He chuckled and was relieved to see a slight smile creep onto Sabre's face as well.  
He gently patted the younger male's shoulder. "I think we should soon be prepared for the best part of the night. Transforming back and then not having to deal with it anymore for another month."

When Sabre awoke again he found himself in the sick bay. He couldn't remember how he got there but he guessed that he probably had passed out while he had changed back. His wounds were freshly stitched and bandaged.  
Looking around he saw Spectre in one of the nearby beds, still asleep, bandages wrapped around his wounds as well, and he felt another sting of guilt. It wasn't his fault, he didn't do it on purpose, in the future he would learn to keep control over himself, it would never happen again unless for the sake of training - but even repeating this over and over in his head didn't help much. He still had a long way to go before he had the creature inside of him under control. And also a long way until he finally would be able to believe in his own words.

**Author's Note:**

> A first plan had been to tell this story with a lot more flashbacks on Sabre's time in the forest but in such a short story it felt way too chaotic and complicated so I rather settled for the idea of him having a complete blackout and only remembering snippets of his worst impressions.


End file.
